‘Rage bait’ is Oxford 2025 Word of the Year: What does it mean?

The internet has become home to loud incendiary statements from all directions.

This culture sets the stage for Oxford University Press’ (OUP) latest linguistic snapshot of the digital world: the announcement that “rage bait” is the 2025 Word of the Year.

Defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive,” rage bait is typically used to increase engagement on social media or web pages.

Oxford’s experts note that the Word of the Year doesn’t have to be a single word officially. Expressions like this, which function as a “single unit of meaning,” are valid selections. Last year’s winner, “brain rot,” also followed this two-word trend.

The selection was determined through a combination of public voting, sentiment analysis and linguistic data. Over three days, more than 30,000 people worldwide cast their votes. “Rage bait” beat other viral contenders like “aura farming” and “biohack.”

Oxford also supported the choice with real-world usage data from its 30-billion-word global language corpus.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that the public has had a hand in the decision. The process began in 2022 when voters chose “goblin mode,” a term describing “unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy” behavior.

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